Art

On Friday the Amsterdam court held the first day of trial in a lawsuit over a Buddha statue containing a mummy. A group of Chinese villagers sued Dutch collector Oscar van Overeem claiming that the statue in his possession was stolen from their village, YangChun, in 1995, the Volkskrant reports.

Amsterdam portrait artist Edwin van den Dikkenberg gained some international fame this weekend when his painting of former American president Barack Obama went viral online, mistakenly called Obama's official presidential portrait.

The painting was massively discussed on social media, particularly because it depicts Obama wearing a beige suit. In 2014 the president was criticized for this particular clothing choice, because it was considered not to be presidential enough.

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam discovered an unknown sketch by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. The sketch seems to be an early version of the 1914 painting An Englishman in Moscow, one of the top Malevich pieces the museum has in its collection, Het Parool reports.

The Amsterdam Rainbow Dress, designed to draw attention to the persecution of LGBTQ community members globally, was presented in San Francisco this week by an Amsterdam delegation to honor California's Harvey Milk Day. The dress features 75 national flags of countries where homosexuality is included in the national Criminal Code.

A family heirloom accidentally sold on a King's Day flea market, has been tracked down. The painting is now back with its original owner, NOS reports.

An 11-year-old girl from Blokker sold the painting at a Hoorn flea market with her father for only 5 euros. She had no idea that the painting was precious to her mother. And the father did not know his ex still wanted it, as had been in his attic for some time.

The De Pont museum in Tilburg will soon be the proud owner of a 6 meter high steel statue by world-famous artist Anish Kapoor. The statue is a gift to the De Pont Museum for its 25th birthday, Omroep Brabant reports.

Many people know Kapoor for is statue The Cloud Gate in Chicago. The statue is a photograph favorite for tourists, because it beautifully reflects the Chicago skyline.

It is not yet clear what the Tilburg statue will look like, as the artist is still working on it.

An 11-year-old girl from Blokker in Noord-Holland accidentally sold a very valuable family heirloom at the King's Day flea market in Hoorn. The girl went to the flea market with her father to sell some things and afterwards told her mother that she sold "a painting with a lady on it" for 5 euros, RTV Noord-Holland reports.

Auction house Christie's sold a painting titled An old man at a casement by Dutch painter Govert Flinck for 10.4 million dollars (around 9.5 million euros) in New York on Thursday. The value of the Rembrandt student's painting was estimated between 2 million and 3 million euros, the auction house announced.

An old man at a casement was painted in 1645. The previous time the painting was auctioned was in 2011. Then it sold for 2.7 million euros.

With the replacement of the golden weather cock on Monday, Amsterdam's Zuiderkerk tower is officially fully restored. From this week the scaffolding around the building will be removed. And soon Amsterdam will again have the tower in its original form - as made famous in a Monet painting - as part of the city's skyline.

Three archeologists found almost 90 sliver coins from the period 1542 to 1571 in a field in Westwoud, Noord-Holland. Almost all the coins show the head of Spanish King Philip II, who once reigned over the Netherlands, the Westfries Museum announced on Friday, AD reports.

Along with the coins, the remains of a container was found in which they were supposedly kept, the Museum said.

About a century after her execution by firing squad in 1917, some of Dutch spy Mata Hari's possessions went up for auction at Amsterdam auction house De Zwaan. The auction included photos, objects, furniture and toys that belonged to her two children. All in all it raised 45 thousand euros on Monday, NOS reports.

The Keukenhof opens for the season on Thursday. This season will be in the theme of Dutch Design, with floral designs inspired by works by Dutch artists. The center piece this year is a floral work inspired by Mondriaan, NU.nl reports.

The Mondriaan work is a 250 square meters floral mosaic designed in the famous Mondriaan colored squares and rectangles. A massive 80 thousand bulbs were planted in two layers to keep the mosaic in bloom throughout the spring. It consists of tulips, grape hyacinths and crocus.

Two paintings by Vincent van Gogh that were stolen from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 2002, are finally back home. On Tuesday the museum invited members of the press to see the works for the first time in just over 14 years. From Wednesday the paintings will be on display to the public, AD reports.

The pistol used to kill populist politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002 became part of the Rijksmuseum's collection in 2012, former director Wim Pijbes said to Quote. Fortuyn's relatives donated the weapon to the museum via the Public Prosecutor, NU.nl reports.

In 2010 the Rijksmuseum announced interest in buying the firearm, in order to one day exhibit it. But due to a commotion that arose, Pijbes abandoned the purchase. After "extensive consultations with the Fortuyn family" the murder weapon was given to the museum in 2012.

One of two men convicted for stealing two paintings from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002, told his story to the Telegraaf over the weekend. Octave Durham told the newspaper that he and companion Henk B. actually wanted to steal the famous paintings Sunflowers and The Potato Eaters, but the first was too well guarded and the second was too large to fit through the window they broke to get into the museum.

The municipality of Amsterdam is hard at work getting artworks for the subway stations along the city's new Noord-Zuid subway line. The Rokin station will feature huge mosaics made of stone by British-French artist duo Danie Dewar and Gregory Gicquel, Het Parool reports.

The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is being renovated. The renovations will include a new, larger entrance on the Westermark and more space for educational visits, AD reports.

The former student housing on the Westermark will become part of the Anne Frank House, making more space available at the museum for educational tours and visitor facilities. The museum also plans to offer visitors more historical context, so that they can better experience the story of Anne Frank and her hiding place.

A letter written by the widow of writer Multatuli in 1930 recently surfaced in Groningen. It was found in a old book, which was recently given to a used book shop, RTV Noord reports.

In the letter widow Mimi Hamminck Schepel thanks an employee of the University of Groningen for his commitment to the work of her deceased husband Multatuli. By that time he had been dead for almost half a century.

The Noordbrabants Museum and the Museo del Prado together won the prestigious Global Award for Fine Art for the exhibition "Hieronymus Bosch - Visions of a Genius", which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Dutch artist's death last year, Omroep Brabant reports.

Turkish photographer Burhan Ozbilici of Associate Press was awarded the World Press Photo in Amsterdam on Monday. He won with his photo of 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, who gunned down a Russian ambassador in Turkey on December 19th last year. The photo was taken during the attack on ambassador Andrei Karlov.

A painting believed to be the work of Dutch artist Piet Mondriaan was found among boxes of discarded furniture in a thrift store in Naarden. The painting of a withered sunflower shows strong resemblance to Mondriaan's earlier work, auctioneer Rob Mulders said to RTL Nieuws.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is planning to hold an exhibition on the Netherlands' slavery history in 2020, director Taco Dibbits said to the Volkskrant on Friday. "In good and bad ways, it is all part of it and all must be shown", he said.

The Rijksmuseum manages several objects that refer to the history of slavery. These include dioramas made of slave plantations, etchings and paintings depicting slaves and child slaves as servants in portraits of citizens. The museum also has a number of artworks showing the darker side of Dutch seafaring.